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Notes from Betsy…on Single

Our rock-star publicist, Betsy Steve, lover of books and all things media, is here to share one of her favorites from this month. Get ready!

Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled by Michael Cobb has received quite a bit of media attention not just because of its beautiful cover (which, by the way, is Bernice Abbott’s Cocteau in Bed with Mask, Paris, 1927) or its quirky 5″x9″ trim size (think travel guide dimensions), but because it fits so perfectly with the recently reported changing dynamic of the United States’ population: More and more people are choosing singledom over coupledom.

In fact, in New York and Washington D.C. alone, one in two households are occupied by someone who is single. And, as Michael Cobb would argue in his book, there’s nothing wrong with that. For too long, the single person has been unjustifiably maligned and pitied by society. As Michael tells Maclean’s Brian Bethune in an interview, “I had a lot of frustration with why singles weren’t being represented. We were always pre- or post-coupled—widows or bachelors or divorcees, unfortunates of some kind. Just a really awful category.”

In Single, Michael takes readers through an eclectic set of literary, cultural, philosophical, psychoanalytical, and pop culture pieces that celebrate the uncoupled, providing a much-needed counter voice to the chorus of the coupled. Don’t miss interviews with Michael from Wisconsin Public Radio, the Toronto Star, the CBC, Slate.com, as well as reviews from the Toronto Globe and Mail and featured excerpts on the Wall Street Journal’s “Speakeasy.”